Tuesday, March 31, 2015

... When you look back at the films that were incredibly popular during war years, an entirely different kind of movie experience regularly tops the bill. Some of the strongest pieces of sheer cinematic escapism were made during World War II. Strange, distant lands; the arms of an impossibly beautiful lover; songs and dances and the first bursts of bright, onscreen colour: here’s a look at some of the films that transported people to better places during the war. ...

There was Dumbo, there was The Black Swan, and there was this German offering ...

Der Fuehrer's answer to Disney, Weather-Beaten Melody:

I'd never heard of this flick before. It's almost hypnotically three-dimensional, yet at the same time, strangely crude. And why it shows up on a Den of Geek list of "Eight Great Escapist Fantasies," I have no idea.

• "Home" outperformed estimates and provides a short-term boost to Dreamworks Animation as the only 2015 release.

• Television revenue set to hit $200 to $250 million in 2015 led by new shows on Netflix.

• Dreamworks Animation signs new deal with Verizon for 200 hours of original content, strengthening television segment and diversifying importance of Netflix.

• Consumer products and increasing storyline to watch with new television launches on Netflix in 2015 and new "Kung Fu Panda" and "Trolls" movies in 2016. ...

You get yourself a hit, the press gets nicer. It was only a couple of eyeblinks ago that there was this:

Massive writedowns. Failed sales. Deep staffing cuts. ...

The company’s suffering won’t be alleviated when “Home,” its upcoming alien invasion film, lands on Friday. The picture is on track to open to between $30 million and $35 million, a respectable result but for the fact that it also carries a $130 million pricetag. ...

“The last eight months have been the worst in the company’s 20-year history,” Katzenberg told Wall Street analysts on Feb. 24, as he licked his wounds and reflected on a period of painful cost-cutting that resulted in layoffs, the closure of DWA’s Northern California studio, and a serious re-examination of its creative choices. Analysts and stockholders don’t care about the past, however. They want to know whether Katzenberg has a plan for the future.

That future is dependent on hit movies, something DWA has been sorely lacking. ...

DreamWorks is still on wobbly under-pinnings, but having a non-sequel make some cash helps the company a lot, because next year there are two features released, one of them a sequel out of a hit franchise. But let's not kid ourselves, Jeffrey Katzenberg is still performing a high-wire act. His company is a stand-alone, and too many missteps will send it plummeting.

For the moment, however, the skies over Lake Katzenberg in Glendale look brighter.

Monday, March 30, 2015

... A new development approved on Wednesday calls for demolishing the western half of the [Sportsmen's Lodge] complex, including the events center, River Rock restaurant, the waterfall, ponds, and water features and replacing them with a nearly 100,000-square-foot shopping center including a large gym and five restaurants. The hotel was renovated in a mid-century style in 2013 and will remain in operation. ...

The Los Angeles Conservancy meanwhile has not taken a position on the issue, and some citizen groups have felt left out of the planning process. “The neighbors never objected to this project,” says the group Our Studio City, “because they were not aware of it.” The city and developer agreed to add “two man-made lakes, connected by a stream” and a “plaque, monument, or display case commemorating the history of the Sportsmen’s Lodge.” ...

The Lodge, surprisingly enough, figures in The Animation Guild's sixty-three-year history.

The meeting and strike vote for the Guild's 1979 job action happened here. And as Prez Emeritus Tom Sito says:

In 1990, we held Grim Natwick's 100th Birthday there. 500 people attended, making it the last great reunion of the Golden Age of Animation. All the surviving Disney's Nine Old Men, Chuck Jones, Walter Lantz, Friz Freleng, Fleischer artists, UPA artists. It was a magical night. The early Annie Awards were held there, when they honored Max and Dave Fleischer, Tex Avery and Ub Iwerks. If those walls could talk.

Also, too, contract negotiations went on at the Lodge.

So it's a bit sad, heart-wrenching even, to see the old place get dismantled.

... Nickelodeon has appointed Jennifer Dodge to the newly created position of SVP West Coast Development and Production for Nickelodeon Preschool. The move comes almost two weeks after the kids cable network began layoffs as part of broader reductions at parent Viacom. Among those pink-slipped were Emmy winner Teri Weiss, Nickelodeon’s EVP Preschool Programming, and Kay Wilson Stallings, SVP Production & Development atNickelodeon Preschool, Nick Jr. and NickMom. ...

In her new role, she will spearhead West Coast-based development of all original content for Nickelodeon Preschool’s programming block and the Nick Jr. channel, as well as additional preschool platforms such as the Nick Jr. app. She also will take pitches and develop creative assignments for preschool projects and be tasked with developing in-house talent, and discovering and nurturing new artists and writers in the West Coast creative community. ...

We haven't the foggiest how Ms. Dodge will do in her new position, but we wish her well.

There have been a lot of changes at Nick over the last few years. We understand that happens to corporate divisions when they fall off their high perches. There are executive removals, then new executive installations.

Disney bought a script by writing team Elizabeth Martin and Lauren Hynek that centers on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, the female warrior who was the main character in Disney's 1998 animated film. ...

I was s-o-o-o disappointed that the Mouse didn't clasp my "Ben and Me" remake pitch to its heart, but I will somehow struggle on.

He began his sojourn in animation as a story artist on Spongebob Squarepants and has been a creative force in television animation ever since. The creator of the Cartoon Network hit Chowder, he is now set to launch Harvey Beaks at Nickelodeon. He spoke of his beginnings in animation ... and some of the creative high points since then ... on March 23rd.

... When I first pitched the show [Chowder], the network was afraid that every episode would be about cooking a different recipe each week. I had to convince them that is was a show about people who cook, not cooking itself. Sort of like how ER is about the people who work in a hospital, not the ins and outs of being a doctor. The pilot was The Froggy Apple Crumple Thumpkin. After that, I wrote Mahjongg Nite. It involves Chowder’s quest for mevilled eggs but it’s about him not being allowed in the kitchen. Then I wrote The Heavy Sleeper to show more of the city. These were all done before the show was even greenlit. ...

So now a new Greenblatt show is being launched, and Carl conducted a number of interviews last week in front of the rollout. We were lucky enough to be last in the cycle, and got to spend a generous amount of time with Harvey Beaks' proud father.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

... "I would read [Jeffrey Katzenberg's] blog and get exhausted," says a former DreamWorks production coordinator who left recently. She noticed a pattern: The busier Mr. Katzenberg was, the more off-track the studio's film division--famous for hits like " Shrek" and "Kung Fu Panda"--seemed to her and fellow production managers. ...

His peripatetic itinerary reflected a desire to branch into multiple platforms and industries--from television to publishing, theme parks to YouTube, mall attractions to children's toys--to reduce DreamWorks' reliance on the unpredictable returns of two or three films a year. But the company began making creative decisions that left audiences wanting and gave new ancillary businesses little good material to work with. ...

[Katzenberg] has vowed to focus on films--a strategy that got a major boost this weekend with the successful opening of the studio's release, "Home."

Directors and producers who have worked with Mr. Katzenberg say it will be good if his focus holds. Many say he is among the few executives who can cut through development chaos and see broad issues with a feature's plot or characters. ...

I've been through the Glendale campus for a lot of years, and it's not simply Mr. Katzenberg's "lack of focus." Staffers have told me that managers too often kick production cans down the road rather than rendering a crisp decision. And that ends up costing money.

The studio needs to figure out how to make films with a lower production cost. Illumination Entertainment makes its animated features for $79 million. DreamWorks Animation produced the first Shrek, after much stopping and starting (which included the death of actor Chris Farley and director changes) for $60 million. Everything now -- if Box Office Mojo is believed -- costs $130 million and up.

Even Disney managed to make 101 Dalmations for a fraction of the cost of Sleeping Beauty. As a DWA supervisor said to me several months back:

"Production managers don't like to cut through problems. They dither around and money keeps getting spent. ..."

Maybe if Jeffrey's attention is centered on the theatrical features, a lot of the dithering will end.

... [Cinderella] topped overseas charts, earning $38.7 million after debuting in Spain, the United Kingdom, Brazil, France and Australia. The rags-to-riches story of a woman who captures a prince’s heart while losing her shoe is also the studio’s second highest-grossing live-action release in China, having made $65.1 million. ...

[Home] had to settle for fourth place on foreign charts. The animated film made $24 million in 64 territories to bring its global total to $102.2 million. ...

I encountered a bit of hadwringing at DWA Glendale before Home got released. ("Who's going to go see it?" ... "Is it exciting enough? Funny enough?")

It's always difficult to preidict how this or that movie will perform; n this case, a lot of analysts -- inside and outside the company -- were off.

Now that Disney is in the business of shooting dark, gritty, live-action remakes of its classic animated films (hello, Cinderella), Saturday Night Live presented Disney’s next film, starring Dwayne Johnson as Bambi.

And all of Johnson’s action movie colleagues are here too: Vin Diesel, Tyrese Gibson, and Michelle Rodriguez costar as his murderous furry animal friends, all here to kill hunters and make them pay “deerly.” (There’s a lot of intense deer puns.) ...

Of course, the Walt Disney Company has already put Vin Diesel into Guardians of the Galaxy as an animated character, so this is the next logical step.

I mean, if you're going to mine the catalogue, really get in there and deep drill, baby. It's only right.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

... In 1938, The Walt Disney Studio hired [Tyrus Wong' as an "inbetweener" to draw the frames between the main drawings of the animators. Wong soon learned that the studio was trying to turn Felix Salten's novel Bambi into an animated film. After reading the story, he saw an opportunity to break out of his humdrum job.

"I said, 'Gee, this is all outdoor scenery,' " Wong recalls in a video featured in the museum exhibit. "I said, 'Gee, I'm a landscape painter. This will be great!' "

Inspired by Chinese landscape paintings, he used watercolor and pastels to make sample sketches that evoked forest scenes with simple strokes of color and special attention to light and shadow.

"He visualized the forest as being ethereal," Labrie says. "The sketches were more of an impression of the forest." ...

National Public Radio is profiling Mr. Wong because his exhibition of art (which began at the Disney Family Museum in San Francisco) has now moved east to New York.

One facet of Tyrus Wong's vast array of work that is sometimes overlooked: Christmas cards.

I think that's one reason my father and Tyrus W. stayed connected after the Bambi designer departed Disney's. They both created holiday scenes that were sold in boxes of twenty-five. Tyrus moved on to live-action projects at Warner Bros. while Ralph Hulett stayed with animation, but they were both landscape artists who did lots of other things and they remained friends.

... This weekend is looking a little brighter for DWA as its sole 2015 feature toon Home, via 20th Century Fox, is leading the charge at the box office with an estimated $15M Friday and a $52.7M weekend. As of this morning at 8:30AM, there’s even better news: Fox is reporting $15.6M for Home with the revised industry weekend estimate being $55.5M. ...

Home was animated/created at DWA's Glendale campus; TAG President emeritus Nathan Loofbourrow was one of the supervisors on the show, so congrats to Nathan and the entire DreamWorks team for a job well done!

Add On: As the weekend rolls on, the estimates for Home keep going up. We're now up to $59 million.

Animated family film Home easily topped the North American box office with $54 million from 3,708 theaters in a much-needed win for Jeffrey Katzenberg's DreamWorks Animation.

Overseas, the music-infused title has earned $48.2 million for an early worldwide total of $102.2 million, including an okay $24 million for the weekend from 64 markets. The bigger winner offshore was Cinderella, grossing $38.7 million from 52 markets to trump Insurgent as well and top the foreign chart. ...

Home marks the best opening for a DWA film since Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted ($60.3 million) in summer 2012, and the third-best showing ever for an original DWA title after Kung Fu Panda ($60.2 million) and Monsters vs. Aliens ($59.3 million), not accounting for inflation. ...

Friday, March 27, 2015

Let’s share a Nightmare. In this dark dream, you are not a talented, creative artist. Instead you are an accountant. You work at the very same studio, in a very similar cube but probably with fewer action figures.

Your boss comes into your cube, compliments the color coding on your last spreadsheet, and assigns you to do the budgeting for that hot new animated show they just picked up, “Uncle Bunny and Zombie Pig.” He tells you to base it on the budget you did last season for “Tree Princess Zablimba” but he wants you to cut it down by ten percent.

As your boss walks away, a tiny part of you wants to scream at him. “Ten percent! Are you insane? How can we maintain quality?” But you don’t because, well, you’re an accountant and you live for this kind of thing. So you put in some long hours – sometimes staying as late as 6 PM. And finally you figure it out. If you cut back the storyboard schedule from four weeks to three weeks, you can save that ten percent.

So you send out the new budget and you wait to see what happens. A year later the show is on the air. It’s good. Or so you’re told. You don’t really watch cartoons. You do watch the budget numbers and since there aren’t any overages and the shows all delivered on time, you conclude that your shorter schedule worked.

Over in the next cube you see your boss asking the new guy to budget “Megavengers Action Powerbot Team Six.” And look whose budget he wants it based on - yours! You are pretty proud. Everyone is going to be using your new shorter schedule soon. You have no idea that it caused a lot of artists to work fifty and sixty hour weeks to keep up. How could you? None of them asked for overtime. If they had, you’d have seen it. And if it had been significant enough you might even have considered going back to the longer, less expensive schedule.

Sometime later that week, as you reward yourself with that extra dessert at Cheesecake Factory, a thought will occur to you: what about a two-week storyboard schedule?
￼
Stop the nightmare. Working unpaid overtime gives the studios false feedback on how much can reasonably be done in a standard work week. When the amount of work you are given can’t be completed by your deadline without overtime, ask to be paid for it or ask for your deadline to be extended.

... for Home? So says one of our fine trade papers, which would generate a sigh of relief at DreamWorks Animation's Glendale campus.

DreamWorks/Fox’s animated comedy “Home” is heading for a better-than-forecasted $44 million opening weekend while the Will Ferrell-Kevin Hart buddy comedy “Get Hard” is looking at $38 million.

Early projections showed “Home” notching a $12 million opening day on Friday, including $650,000 at Thursday night shows — a promising start with 15% of K-12 schools out for spring break. It looks likely to finish above Fox-Blue Sky’s “Rio 2,″ which opened last April when 9% of K-12 schools were out. ...

Home has done solid business overseas, so perhaps that was a harbinger for a strong U.S. opening.

I know there was some trepidation at DWA regarding how it would roll out, but this weekend looks as though it will settle some nerves.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Directed by Mark Dindall for Turner Feature Animation (before it merged with Warner Bros.) Art directed by Brian McEntee, who did the same for Beauty and the Beast. Amy Pascal, who went on to a long reign at Sony, was one of the Turner execs.

Cats was the last film on which dancer Gene Kelly worked. (He served as a consultant.) It was also the first ... and last ... animated feature from Turner, which merged with Warner Bros. near the end of production. The movie under-performed at the box office, which wasn't unusual for Warner animated releases at the time. (Warners' Iron Giant, following soon after, also failed at the box office.)

The sour, semi-sick joke among industry animators in the late nineties? "Want to end AIDS? Let Warner Bros. distribute it."

The Animation Guild is in the middle of 401(k) enrollment meetings, and we'll be out over the next several weeks with booklets, information, and our sunny smiles.

I was telling a sizable group at Fox Animation this afternoon how 92% of TAG 401() Plan's 2450 participants are in Vanguard Target Date Funds, and that for most of them this is a solid option because ...

... You don’t need a lot of funds to be diversified. You could achieve diversification by investing in just three mutual funds that cover virtually the entire stock market. For example, a diversified portfolio might include investing equal amounts in just three broad exchange-traded funds, including total market U.S. equities, total market international equities and total bond market. ...

If you want to further simplify your investments, you can use a target-date fund. This would allow you to go from three funds to just one. Target-date funds are sometimes referred to as a fund of funds, because it is a single fund that holds positions in several funds. For example, Vanguard’s Target Retirement 2030 fund holds five mutual funds including four stock funds and one bond fund. Just as is the case with the three fund portfolio, diversification is achieved through a small number of broad-based funds. But all you need to do is invest in a single all-encompassing fund and you’re done.

The longer I do this, the more I subscribe to "Don't let the quest for the perfect plan stand in the way of a good plan."

There is always something better than what you're holding. The problem is you don't know what it is until after the fact, and it's pointless to chase returns ("skating to where the puck is") because those great results are yesterday's news. Far better to cobble together a workable plan, execute it and then stick to it. For most people, this means finding a plan that is simple and easy to do.

Which means a single fund that holds the whole market, or a few broad-based funds that encompass everything (see above).

But to build wealth and/or retirement savings, you've got to start the process and then keep at it.

Contribute to investment accounts.

Tuck part of your wages into a 401(k).

Lastly, put money away into a Roth IRA. The wife and I have been doing these things for thirty-plus years, even when we could barely scrape two nickels together.

We urge you, beg you to get started on this project. Begin by checking here. Twenty-eight years from now, you'll thank us.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

1980s sci-fi anime series Robotech is being fast-tracked for the big screen by Sony.

The studio acquired rights to the toon with an eye on developing it as a worldwide franchise. Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton are producing from Michael Gordon’s script. Doug Belgrad, Michael De Luca and Matthew Milam are overseeing. ...

I guess it's better than doing big screen, live-action remakes of Circus Boy and Sky King, but can't these heirs to Sam Goldwyn, Darryl Zanuck and Harry Cohn come up with original properties once in a while?

Sony Pictures Animation has set for March 31, 2017 global release an untitled animated Smurfs film, which means it will bow during the Easter holiday. This will be a new fully animated on the blue crew that propelled the live action Smurfs franchise.

The first Smurfs movie, released in July 2011, ended up making $563.7M worldwide. The second in Columbia’s franchise, released in 2013, grossed $347.5M worldwide. ...

Board artists have been working on the latest iteration of Smurfdom for awhile now. There have been multiple changes and tweaks as they've gone along.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

I received word from retired Guild President Bob Foster today asking to share this tidbit with you. So, from the land of blissful retirement:

A Recommendation From Bob Foster -

Attention writers, storytellers, artists and people who like to laugh -

Over a year ago I discovered Instaplay at The Fanatic Salon in Culver City and haven't missed a performance since. Instaplay is an improvised musical created by a group of writers and performers who are brilliant. Even though I'm now living in Oregon, I was going to fly down for their next show. That's how great I think they are. Unfortunately something has come up and I won't be able to make it this time. But you can go in my place. In fact, I wish you would.

Instaplay is a brilliant example of improvised humor, story and music created by some of the best in the business. Bill Steinkellner, Jonathan Stark, George McGrath, Deanna Oliver, Navaris Darson, Cheri Steinkellner, Mari Falcone and John Boswell have been doing this for many years and they're extremely good at it. Check out their credentials on Google or IMDb.

The way it works is this: They take about ten title suggestions from the audience, the audience votes for the one they like best and the winning title is the basis for an improvised musical created right then and there. They'll create a storyline with a beginning, middle and end, amazing music and songs, wonderful characters, and so much laughter your cheeks will ache and you'll have a hard time seeing the show because your eyes will be filled with tears from laughing so much.

If you go, plan on finding a place to eat in the neighborhood, go early, get to the 53-seat theater by 7:30 pm, doors open at 7:40 pm, show starts at 8:00 pm. Here's what you need to know to get tickets:

I had lunch today with my friend the wise old cartoon producer (now retired). He related this.

Years ago I was supervising an animated feature. We were about a quarter of the way through it, and I realized that there were too many characters and too much movie for the budgets we had, that we'd be over budget if we didn't trim both.

And I made a mistake. Upper management said they wanted to know if there were problems, so I thought, "Okay, I should be transparent about what's going on here, tell them about the problems. So I wrote a detailed memo about what the issues were, how we'd go over budget if we didn't do some cuts, what the ideas were to deal with it. And upper management flipped out. They brought in trouble shooters, brought in another production accountant, spent a bunch of money on the new personnel.

But the new hires didn't have much to do. The director and crew made cuts, and the production trouble shooter and the money counter had nothing to do for a month except sit around. By the time we finished the picture, we were under-budget and the picture was a money-maker.

And I got let go. The lesson I learned was: Upper management says they want to know about problems that come up, to help solve any difficulties, but they really don't. What they want is for you to fix whatever's wrong and tell them as little as possible. ...

I've been around the track a few times, but I'd never heard that particular story from the WOCP. Even so, it rang memory bells. When I got back to the office after lunch I remembered which bells jangled:

... Quite recently I had an artist come into my office and tell me the sad story of being in a meeting where "suggestions and input" to make the project better was "encouraged."

So he came up with suggestions, and was told his ideas were interesting and "worth thinking about." And two weeks later his producer informed him that his last day would be January 4th. ("Right after the holidays. Because, you know, we don't want to lay you off right at Christmas ...")

S.R. Hulett (2011)

Which inevitably triggers this:

"I want someone to tell me," Lieutenant Scheisskopf beseeched them all prayerfully. "If any of it is my fault, I want to be told."

"He wants someone to tell him," Clevinger said.

"He wants everyone to keep still, idiot," Yossarian answered.

"Didn't you hear him," Clevinger argued.

"I heard him," Yossarian replied. "I heard him say very loudly and very distinctly that he wants every one of us to keep our mouths shut if we know what's good for us."

"I won't punish you," Lieutenant Scheisskopf swore.

"He says he won't punish me," said Clevinger.

"He'll castrate you," said Yossarian. ...

-- Joseph Heller, Catch 22 (1961)

To be even-handed here, there are show runners and show creators who want to solve problems and are happy when members of the crew pitch in to help. But it's always good to be sure of your supervisor's receptiveness to new solutions or constructive criticism before offering any.

... I chose a 6 1/2 min short compilation from my 5 hour video documentary during the DISNEY BEAUTY AND THE BEAST storyreel development time in london and the research trip to the loire in france. it happened during august 1989 in the PURDUM animation studio in london. you might recognize in the order of appearance – myself, MEL SHAW, JEAN GILMORE, DEREK GOGOL, TOM SITO, GLEN+LINDA+CLAIRE KEANE. at the party – DON HAHN, ANDREAS DEJA, DICK+JILL PURDUM, MEL SHAW and wife FLORENCE. I included a short clip of the finished story-reel in color. ...

In case you're unfamiliar with "Beauty and the Beast's" production development, it moved along the way animated features often do: The picture started with one director -- in this case English animation director Richard Purdum -- and one story, then ended up with other directors and a considerably altered storyline.

Pay attention to the end of the video. The story reel fragment is way different from the finished movie.

Monday, March 23, 2015

... DreamWorks Animation and Fox predict a weekend opening in the mid-$30 million range [for Home] in the U.S, according to a Fox spokesman. The film could also benefit from the extended Easter weekend in early April. BoxOffice.com forecasts $26 million for the opening weekend in the U.S. “Home” has already collected $20.1 million internationally, according to Fox.

... Home’s strongest market was the Cinderella-less United Kingdom where it opened in first place with $9.3 million. While that figure lags behind the UK wide-release of DreamWorks’s How to Train Your Dragon 2, which netted $13.3M in a weekend, it’s significantly better than Penguins of Madagascar, which had a soft $2.5M bow in the market last December. ...

It would be a good and useful thing if the picture opens above expectation in the U.S. and Canada. There was a time not long ago when almost every DWA feature opened north of $50 million in the States, and went rocketing on from there. (Domestic takes of less than $150 million were considered problems.)

Sadly, huge three-day openings are no longer a DreamWorks Animation birthright. If Home nudges up against $40 million (or higher) on Friday-Saturday-Sunday, it will undoubtedly be considered a triumph.

The creators of a web series about a foul-mouthed teddy bear who likes booze, cigarettes and paying for sex have ended their copyright infringement suit against Seth MacFarlane, Universal Pictures and the producers of the 2012 blockbuster Ted. “The parties hereby stipulate and agree … that this action, and Plaintiff’s Complaint for Copyright Infringement, shall be dismissed in its entirety with prejudice, each side to bear its own costs and attorneys’ fees.” ...

Studios get hit with lawsuits of this type on a regular basis. Seldom do the suits get much (or any) traction. It's difficult to corral and copyright ideas, particularly ones centered around a talking teddy bear.

Sunday, March 22, 2015

The upcoming animated feature Angry Birds is an enormous investment for the game and entertainment studio Rovio.

The budget for the film has been estimated at 80 million United States dollars, equivalent to over 75 million euros. In addition, Rovio and its partner, Sony Entertainment, will splash roughly 100 million euros in the marketing and distribution of the film.

Rovio has declined to disclose its exact share of the marketing and distribution costs but will nevertheless invest a total of over 100 million euros in the animated feature. ...

Rovio has yet to successfully expand its brand catalogue beyond the rabid birds, although a number of ideas are in early development, according to Rantala. “Entertainment companies naturally seek to have a solid brand portfolio rather than a single brand,” he acknowledges.

Will the bird characters be able to maintain their appeal without a background story?

This is precisely the question the animated feature will seek to answer, says Rantala. He believes the brand will be less reliant on the success of the game series after the animation has been released. ...

I hope Rovio has itself a winner in Angry Birds. It's going to NEED to be a winner if it wants to recoup its investment. Most European features about which I've read cost a fraction of AB's cash outlay.

But I guess Rovio (and Sony) have decided to dare greatly. Best of luck to them.

The new DreamWorks Animation feature, not yet out in the U.S. of A.,received good news:

... 3D buddy comedy Home landed a fantastic $19.16M in nine markets to kick off its global rollout. This comes ahead of a big 55-territory expansion (including in North America) next weekend. ... The Penguins Of Madagascar are still strongly perched in Venezuela with a further $590K for an $11.5M cume after six weeks; the gang’s offshore total is now $287M.

The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water added $3.2M from 3,720 locations in 48 territories this frame. ...

[Big Hero 6] embraced another $6.6M ($5.6M from China) to lift the international cume to $422.8M and the global take to $644.77M. ...

Saturday, March 21, 2015

The Turner portfolio delivered strong performances for the week of Feb. 23, with TBS and Adult Swim ranking among basic cable's Top 5 networks in Live + 7 delivery of adults 18-49 and adults 18-34 in primetime. And Adult Swim continued its reign as basic cable's #1 network among adults 18-34 and adults 18-49 in total day. ...

Cartoon Network once again ranked as basic cable's #1 network for total day and early prime delivery of targeted boy demos. ... Teen Titans Go! (Thursday 6p) ranked as the #1 telecast of the week among kids 2-11 and all key boys, and #1 for the day among all targeted demos. All Thursday night premieres – Amazing World of Gumball (5p), Uncle Grandpa (5:30p), Teen Titans Go! (6p), Steven Universe (6:30p), Adventure Time (7p) and Regular Show (7:15p) – ranked #1 in their respective time periods among all targeted kids & boys. ...

There's been a steady growth in TV animation work over the past few years.

The studio's have caught wise to the reality that animation is profitable, and animation is the corporate product that keeps on giving. Little wonder then that most of the L.A.-based studios (and some outside Los Angeles) are busily creating cartoons for broadcast, cartoons for cable, and cartoons for the internet.

And it isn't just the cartoons themselves. It's the merchandise that cartoons generate. The games, books, video games, mobile-device apps, action figures and dollies that spin off from top shows make much profit for our fine, entertainment conglomerates.

Cindy will make $35 million this weekend weekend, while Spongebob will earn $2.7 million on its way to $160 million next week. The Disney movie drops by half weekend to weekend, while the Nickelodeon feature declines 35%.

Friday, March 20, 2015

The latest pecking order of our fine, entertainment conglomerates is hardly a surprise.

Frozen fever and Marvel moolah helped deliver $1.7 billion in 2014 as Disney topples Warner Bros., Paramount increases box office and Sony stumbles on Spider-Man in the annual breakdown of money at the major studios. ...

Robert Iger's acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm has paid off in spades.

Michael Eisner and Frank Wells spent ten years growing Walt Disney Productions from the inside out, then Capital Cities/ABC was purchased, then more outside properties like California Angels and Fox Family Worldwide (where Haim Saban made a killing).

But Iger turned the purchase of other entertainment brands into a highly successful art form, and now Diz Co. is a money making behemoth, with numerous interlocking parts that seem to work together to make larger and larger amounts of money.

And then there are all the other big entertainment companies, many of them doing well, but none as high-flying as Diz Co. in 2014-2015.

Robert Iger: He [Steve Jobs] said, "I've made myself a promise that I'm going to be alive for Reed's graduation from high school." [Reed is Jobs's eldest son.]

So I say, of course, "How old is Reed?"

He tells me that Reed is fourteen, and will be graduating in four years. He says, "Frankly, they tell me I've got a fifty-fifty chance of living five years."

"Are you telling me this for any other reason than wanting to get it off your chest?" I asked.

He says, "I'm telling you because I'm giving you a chance to back out of the deal."

So I look at my watch, and we've got thirty minutes. In thirty minutes we're going to make this announcement [that Disney is buying Pixar]. We've got television crews, we've got the board votes, we've got investment bankers. The wheels are turning. And I'm thinking, We're in this post Sarbanes-Oxley world, and Enron, and fiduciary responsibility, and he is going to be our largest shareholder, and I'm now being asked to bury a secret. He told me, "My kids don't know. Not even the Apple board knows. Nobody knows, and you can't tell anybody."

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Every Female Character in Every Disney/Pixar Animated Movie From the Past Decade Basically Has the Same Face

... Disney’s bizarre tendency to animate female characters with minor variations of the same doe-eyed, button nosed template extends far beyond Frozen. This week, Tumblr user Every Flavored Bean took to the site to air her grievances about a troubling new discovery. After seeing a few stills from the upcoming film Inside Out:

The three female characters ... have what is basically the exact same facial structure: big eyes + button nose + chubby cheeks. ...

What Every Flavored Bean not be down with is, every feature cartoon company has its own house style.

Disney hand-drawn features had their own distinct look. Nobody would mistake them for Fleischer features (not that Fleischer made that many). Even later Disney animated features looked demonstrably "Disney."

The same holds true for CG features. Every studio has its own look and approach. Illumination Entertainment is distinct from Blue Sky Studios, which is different than DreamWorks Animation.

You would think that Jeffrey Katzenberg, coming from Disney Feature Animation, would imitate his alma mater, but no. The DWA hand-drawn features moved briskly away from the Disney style, and the CG features (to a somewhat lesser degree) have also carved their own paths.

But the latest Disney features (and their women) have a pretty strong lineage ... all the way back to the Fred Moore female centaurs in Fantasia.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Sunday last, Family Guy did well in the ratings. Not M*A*S*H well, or I love Lucy well, when forty or fifty percent of the TV universe was tuning in, but well as defined by 2015-type numbers. ...

In the 9 P.M. hour, Family Guy had the highest percentage of the 18-49 crowd, even as it had a lower number for total viewers.

In TV land, 'tweeners, elementary school tots, and geezers (those above 49) count for almost nothing. So when I see "Family Guy has a share of 5," I take that to mean:

Of the houses with 18-49 year-olds watching television, 5% of them are watching the Seth MacFarlane program. (The other three shows have lower shares, even though there are more eyeballs watching them. Very old and very young eyeballs are trumped by the peepers of the desired demographic every time.)

March 12, 1945 - THE WAR OF HOLLYWOOD BEGINS -Throughout the 1930’s and 40’s several national unions battle studios (and each other) to represent Hollywood ﬁlm workers ... Teamsters, the FWPC, the Brotherhood of Electricians among them. By 1945 only two remain, the IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) and the CSU (Conference of Studio Unions).

The CSU, the much more militant group, is headed by the charismatic Herb Sorrell (who helped win the Disney strike for the cartoonists in 1941). Sorrell calls several citywide strikes that paralyze Hollywood between 1945 and 1947. President Richard Walsh of IATSE fights the Conference ... and riots in front of the studios are commonplace.

March 13, 1928 - Walt Disney boards a train from New York to L.A. after losing in negotiations the rights to his character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. With him are his wife Lillian and Ub Iwerks. During this long cross-country train ride they conceive the character Mickey Mouse.

March 21, 1951 - The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), under Judge J. Parnell Thomas, moves from Washington DC and sets up in Hollywood to continue rooting out Communist subversion in the movies. They begin in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and later move to the federal building downtown.

(Out of 15,000 people who make a living in the movies and television, only 295 are ever proven or confessed communists. It's an open secret that for $5,000 delivered to the right committee member, your dossier will be moved to the bottom of the pile. The hearings stop in 1956. The blacklist is broken in 1960 and Judge J. Parnell Thomas goes to jail for embezzlement.)

March 31, 1930 - Reacting to charges that the movies had become too racy, Hollywood producers accept the MOTION PICTURE CODE. Regulated by Will Hays, former Republican Party chairman, the code doesn’t really start to have strength until 1935-36, when pressure groups like the Catholic League of Decency go after Mae West and the Tarzan pictures.

The Hays Code forbids open sex and obscenity by mandating twin beds only in a bedroom, nightclothes buttoned to the neck; if a couple is seated together on a bed they must have at least one foot touching the ﬂoor. Kisses can last no longer than 3 seconds, and lips must be closed. (The Code is replaced by the MPAA ratings system in 1968).

[In 1981, Disney's] animation division was turning out middling dreck like The Fox and the Hound, which delivered a scant $63 million in worldwide sales, according to Box Office Mojo.

Yikes.

Drek or not, the picture made more than five times its cost. The same was true of its immediate predecessor The Rescuers, the first animated feature to inspire a sequel. But it's certainly true that Walt Disney Productions' movie line-up of the late seventies and early eighties was pretty much under-whelming.

Yet dominance in one field or another is never permanent. Remember Microsoft's strangle-hold on desk-top computers' operating systems? (Remember desk-top computers?) How about the big bad car company General Motors? A.T. & T. used to own an official, government-sanctioned monopoly. Nothing is forever, particularly a movie studio's reign at the top.

In the meantime, on the heels of Cinderella's boffo opening, the House that Walt built tees up its next animation retread.

... Disney has dated its live-action fairy-tale retelling Beauty and the Beast for March 17, 2017.

Emma Watson is starring as Belle while Dan Stevens will play the Prince/Beast. Luke Evans will play the role of Gaston. Emma Thompson has joined the cast as Mrs. Potts and Kevin Kline as Belle's father, Maurice. Production on the project, which will include some CG magic, will kick off in May at Shepperton Studios in London. ...

Movie companies have a long history of running good things into the ground. Disney has found that, along with its Marvel, Pixar and Lucas brands, there's big dollars in the companies' old cartoon features. The question is, how long will it take for that particular vein of gold to play out?

When Diz Co. gets around to filming live-action versions of Rescuers Down Under and The Black Cauldron, we'll know we're at (or near) the end.

Animation artists, writers and technicians are finding employment at various L.A. cartoon studios, but one of our larger companies is showing executives to the door marked "Egress."

... The brunt of the Viacom layoffs hit Nickelodeon yesterday and today. ... A number of executives and assistants were affected in such areas as preschool, animation, legal and talent. Among those who have departed in the restructuring are Emmy winner Teri Weiss, Nickelodeon’s EVP Preschool Programming; Kay Wilson Stallings, SVP, Production & Development, Nickelodeon Preschool, Nick Jr., Nick Jr. and NickMom; and Nickelodeon Animation Studio SVPs Rich Magallanes and Jenna Boyd.

The cable network would not comment on the layoffs beyond the statement it issued last week: “As announced, we are in the process of restructuring and there will be employees leaving the company as a result.

Cartoon Brew broke the story about Nick layoffs yesterday. Deadline added some scope to the tale today.

... [Nickelodeon/Viacom] aims to unite the entire Nick family in a single facility opening in Burbank next year. And the studio hopes the new state-of-the-art five-story glass structure will become a hub for the entire animation industry. ...

Nick purchased an equipment rental lot at the corner of Lake and Olive some little while ago. Nick employees tell me the move in date is the tail end of 2016. But if it's a five-story "glass structure," the building is a bit more than some pre-fab buildout, and to date there hasn't been a lot done on the property.

I'm sure it will be constructed, but good luck with that 2016 move-in date.

Monday, March 16, 2015

From time to time, we like to let people know what cartoon facilities here in the City of Angels are employing what numbers of animation staff.

So ... without further ado:

EMPLOYMENT BY STUDIO -- March 2015

6 Point 2 --- 24

Bento Box --- 52

Cartoon Network --- 218

Disney TVA --- 263

DPS Film Roman --- 127

DreamWorks Anim --- 597

DreamWorks TV --- 232

Fox Animaiotn --- 90

Hasbro --- 49

Illumination Entrtnmnt --- 7

Marvel Animation --- 44

Nickelodeon --- 324

Paramnt-Animation --- 60

Rich Entertnmt --- 7

Rick & Morty --- 7

Robin Red Breast --- 108

Six Point 2 --- 24

Sony Pix Anim --- 57

Walt Disney Anim Studio --- 530

Universal --- 23

Hasbro --- 41

Warner Animation Group --- 25

Warners TV Anim --- 186

Wild Canary --- 32 ...

You're probably wondering what all those names and numbers up above are about; we're happy to tell you.

Signator studios send TAG employment/layoff slips informing us who they've hired and who they've laid off. This includes free-lance (out of studio) workers and in-house staff.

But signator studios, good citizens though they are, sometimes fall behind in the slip sending, so please understand that employment numbers are always in a wee bit of flux. (Some shows are ramping up, some shows are ramping down. Etc., etc. It's the nature of the entertainment biz.)

We have bold-faced studios that are employing artists, writers and technicians in the triple digits. If you see a particular studio and your reaction is: "Wait a minute! Company A just laid off a bunch of people! I read about it! They still employ that many folks?!"

Yeah, they employ that many folks. Because 1) they're a big organization (still) and 2) many employees remain on payroll for an additional X number of weeks or months after leaving company premises. (Some of them might not be working in a corporate office or cubicle anymore, but they're still employed.)

(From Reuters:) Viacom Inc. agreed to pay $7.21 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by thousands of former interns who said the owner of Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon did not pay them, despite their having done work similar to paid employees.

It is among the largest settlements by companies, including many in the media industry, that have been sued since 2013 by interns who claim they were not paid, or were paid less than minimum wage, in violation of federal and state labor laws. ...

From time to time, the Animation Guild has run across signator studios with unpaid interns performing covered production work. Happily, it hasn't happened recently, and it hasn't happened at most larger studios.

Occasionally, however, an over-ambitious production person attempts to squeeze the turnip until juice flows out. It's a story as old as civilization.

Cinderella took to the international dance floor this frame, kicking up a fantastic $132.45M global opening. The international portion of that is an estimated $62.4M with nearly half of it coming from China ($25M). ...

Big Hero 6 became the top animated title of 2014 with $633M globally over the weekend. After opening in China on February 28, the film now has a local cume of $66.5M, surpassing Frozen to become the highest grossing animated release there ever from Disney or Pixar. ...

Jupiter Ascending added $8.7M this frame in 37 markets, bringing the international cume to date to $125.2M. ... The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water soaked up a further $4.3M this weekend from 5,028 locations in 49 territories, bringing the international cume to $116.2M. ...

Saturday, March 14, 2015

The director [Genndy Tartakovsky] told Moviefone that he’s “off that project” essentially over a difference of opinion in the direction the movie was headed. However, the film is still in active development, according to Sony Pictures Animation.

“I was in love with what we were doing, but I think the studio is going through changes and I don’t know if they want to make the ‘Popeye’ that I want to make,” he told Moviefone. “So they’ve got to make a decision.” ...

... Sony hasn't cancelled the film. What has happened is that Genndy Tartakovsky had moved on to completing Hotel Transylvania 2 and has started production on an original flick, Can You Imagine?

According to a Sony Pictures Animation spokesman I contacted today - and I quote: "Genndy has been developing both Popeye and his original idea Genndy Tartakovsky's Can You Imagine? (temp title) at the same time while directing Hotel Transylvania 2."

"It initially looked like Popeye would happen first but Imagine pulled ahead and is now scheduled to be his next directorial film at Sony Pictures Animation. That said Popeye is still very much in active development." ...

And what Animation Guild reps heard the middle of last week from staff artists was: Popeye hasn't been cancelled outright, but more like put on the back burner/top shelf and left in (temporary?) limbo.

We alluded to this in an earlier post, but the last thing we want to do is break some animation story and then get a brusque and businesslike phone call from the studio, the underlying message of which is:

"Where the f*ck do you get off talking about the status of our projects?!

But since, you know, the cat is now out of the bag, we'll relay what we heard: Popeye development has slowed way down. There was a difference of opinion between corporate parties over the movie's take on the characters. Should the film have a thirties' sensibility along the lines of the Fleischer featurettes? (See below.) Or should the sailor man be more modern? Some story artists thought the Fleischer approach was the way to go, but the story and character development wasn't grabbing higher ups, and so ...

Back burner time.

However, please note: Shelved projects often don't remain shelved. (Witness, for instance, Frozen.) And whatever the full story is, we don't think the sailor man is dead at Sony Pictures Animation, but only in hibernation. SPA needs new projects, so Popeye could ultimately get made.

Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella bewitched audiences as it began rolling out in roughly 2,000 North American theaters Thursday night, grossing $2.3 million for Disney.

Cinderella bested the $1.6 million Thursday-night gross of Universal's Snow White and the Huntsman, which opened to $56.2 million in June 2012, and the $2 million gross of Disney's Oz the Great and Powerful, which opened to $79.1 million in March 2013. ...

... Our experts peg Guardian's net budget at $196 million – $30 million over the original projection–but it was all on the screen. The film grossed $333 million domestic, and added another $344 million foreign, and another $96 million from China (worth $24 million to the bottom line). On a worldwide gross of $774 million Disney’s net haul was $204 million, for a Cash on Cash Return of 1.39. That’s extraordinary for a new franchise. ...

And how smart was Bob Iger to spend that $4 billion on Marvel?

The reason that Diz Co's stock price keeps going up and up and up is because Robert Iger made the decision to turn the Walt Disney Company into the Berkshire-Hathaway of entertainment conglomerates. The corporation's earnings growth has been on steroids almost from the month he took over.

People bemoan that "Disney isn't Disney anymore," but that was really true from the moment Walt Disney died in December 1966. Change accelerated when Michael Eisner, Frank Wells and Jeffrey Katzenberg rode through the Buena Vista gate in 1984, and gained speed again when Robert Iger assumed the helm. (Who would have guessed when he was Michael's Number Two?)

But here we are, with Disney transformed into a plethora of brands and cable networks, and it's paying off big time.

* "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" made $9 million in its first release. This made it the biggest money earner of its era. (It's probable that "The Birth of a Nation" made more in multiple releases, but nobody knows for sure because records were spotty.)

"Gone With the Wind," adjusted for inflation, has grossed $1,660,000,000 and sold the most theater tickets. "SWASD" has grossed $643,010,400. Or so Box office Mojo says.

And as it happened, Steve Kaplan and I motored to Sony just a few days ago ...

The division is going through a morphing stage. Staffers we talked to said the new management team has put development of some pictures on hold and (per employees) will be working to ramp up new projects.

So this is kind of a "limbo period" for the division. Osher exited in the usual way that division heads exit: his chief supporter (in this case, Amy Pascal)was nudged off the top of the corporate heap, and Bob quickly followed. None of the Sony artists we talked to were surprised Osher left, but a few were taken aback at the speed of his departure.

Kristine Belson, the new division chief, is likely itching to put her own stamp on SPA, so look for some previously-announced pictures to be pushed back .... or pushed overboard.

SunTrust Banks Inc., which agreed to buy DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.’s headquarters near Los Angeles for $185 million about two weeks ago, has put the property back up for sale.

CBRE Group Inc. is marketing the 497,403-square-foot (46,210-square-meter) office campus, which is completely leased to DreamWorks Animation for two decades, according to a brochure on the brokerage’s website. ...

So is the little Renaissance village on the cement banks of the Los Angeles River destined to be bought and sold like hog belly futures?

Remember how Three Dee was the biggest thing since three-strip Technicolor?

... Disney-Pixar's 3-D toon "Up" has enough lift to likely become the second-highest-grossing Pixar title at the domestic B.O. after "Finding Nemo."

Through Sunday, "Up's" domestic total was $187.4 million -- the second best of any summer film to date. Par's "Star Trek" has cumed $231.9 million.

"Up's" boffo run is the latest example of how 3-D runs can boost a film's bottom line through higher ticket prices. The film's 3-D runs make up only 40% of the total screen count, yet they contribute 60% of the gross ...

... Audiences also seemed more fatigued than excited by 3D, with the format comprising 14% of the overall box office. That represents its lowest percentage since 2009. A mere 27% of the moviegoing public saw a 3D film in 2014, roughly half of the 52% of the public that checked out the format in 2010, a year in which “Avatar” made most of its $2.8 billion haul. ...

Despite rosy predictions that the Moving View Master was a movie game-changer, the New York Times reported otherwise:

Ripples of fear struck Hollywood last week after Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which cost Walt Disney Studios an estimated $400 million to make and market, did poor 3-D business in North America.

... "The American consumer is rejecting 3-D," Richard Greenfield, an analyst at the financial-services company BTIG [said] ... Consumer rebellion over high 3-D ticket prices plays a role, according to analysts - as does the fading novelty of the funny glasses. ...

TAG blog concurred.

... I spent a year looking at every 3-D release that rolled down the digital highway, Avatar, Christmas Carol, Monsters Vs. Aliens, Toy Story 3, Shrek Forever After, etc. and etc. The DreamWorks features have (for me) the best 3-D going. Jeffrey's crew knows when to punch it, and when to dial it back. DWA's 3-D effects work, I think, to heighten story more than other 3-D presentations.

And still the format leaves me cold. Every time I don the goggles and sit there in the dark I flash on my childhood, sitting on my bed looking at View Master pictures, pushing the little lever, snicking another 3-D color slide into place. ...

The trouble with Three Dee is, it's often a strain to look at and it costs a hell of a lot more than the flat screen version that doesn't hurt your eyes. It was never comparable to color. Everyone sees reality in greens, reds, yellows. Nobody sees it in weird, flat planes that look like a pop-up book.

My prognostication: both features will do well at the box office. (Wow! How Hulett does go out on a limb!)

From what I can see, they're full of well-observed character stuff, and if story elements in each are similar to bits and pieces of movies already out there, what of it? There is nothing totally new under the sun anyway. It's about how the concepts, story arcs, and characters fit together. About how the actors and director present the material.

Both Bird and Docter are good at putting together satisfying, entertaining movies. So we'll see.

Sam Simon, who was one of the major creative forces behind “The Simpsons” and who left the show after its fourth season in a lucrative arrangement that allowed him to spend much of the rest of his life giving his money away, died on Sunday at his home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. He was 59.

His death was confirmed by his agent, Andy Patman. Mr. Simon learned a few years ago that he had colon cancer. ...

Sam Simon had a long career in show biz ... which started at Filmation in the 1970s. He soon left animation to work in live action sitcoms, returning to cartoons with a vengeance to help launch The Simpsons.

Mr. Simon's death wasn't unexpected; he had been fighting cancer for several years.

Since we're on the subject of anniversaries (and related celebrations -- March 9th is clearly an auspicious day in the annals of animation) Professor Sito reminds us:

Happy 80th Birthday Porky Pig, in the short "I haven't got a hat" March 9, 1935.

It could really be called the beginning of what we know as Warner Bros Looney Tunes. Because even though Leon Schlesinger's studio had been around since 1930, for those first few years they struggled to find characters that audiences would embrace. Starting with the little stuttering pig named Porky, the classic WB roster of stars began. Daffy in 1937, Bugs and Elmer in 1940, Road Runner and Coyote 1949. ...

During the thirties, the Disney shorts ran the table at Academy Awards time, but the Warner Bros. output is the more fondly remembered today. The Schlesinger Studio didn't have the budgets that Walt's Hyperion plant did, but Chuck, Friz, Bob, Tex and Frank made every nickel count.

A short history of how many times the fairy tale has been put up on screen. And now yet again.

Stir the embers of the Cinderella story and new flames arise. Kenneth Branagh directs the latest film version in an expensive-looking Disney release starring Cate Blanchett as the wicked stepmother, Helena Bonham Carter as the fairy godmother, and fresh-faced Grace Kelly look-alike Lily James (“Downton Abbey”) as the ashes to riches heroine.

What’s the appeal? In the first 24 hours of its release in November, an online trailer for “Cinderella” was viewed 35 million times on YouTube and Facebook. The scullery maid turned princess can still pack ’em in. ...

Of course there's been a herd of live-action versions of the story, and the 1950 Disney animated feature (which financially revived the studio), but then there's the Fleischer version above, and this:

And Avery's Swing Shift Cinderella (and good luck finding the short on-line):

And so on and so forth.

The tale has been done six ways to Saturday in seven or eight different decades, up there with the zillions of versions of The Three Musketeers and Treasure Island. Show me a well-told public domain story, and all show you a bunch of different movie studios chasing the golden chalice.

Sunday, March 08, 2015

Black Mask Studios does not have the name recognition of DC or Marvel Comics, but officials at the company hope that will soon change.

The publishing and media production company will unveil a series of YouTube channels devoted to comics on Monday, and release “Godkiller,” its first animated movie, this summer. Black Mask also is developing several television series and, of course, its comics.

The main YouTube channel, which will begin with five series, is intended to build a new audience for the comics and a showcase for better “motion comics,” which combine characteristics of print and animation. Black Mask has invested in voice actors to improve narration and directors to present and pace the comics. ...

Ultimately, [it's hoped that] Black Mask’s new endeavors will lead to something very old school: comic book sales.

Looking at Black Mask's YouTube channel on a Sunday night, it appears they have a ways to go to build their audience. (The YouTube vids are more comic ... of story reel from the 70s or 80s ... than 2015 animatic.)

Crossing $600M, Disney’s Big Hero 6 now has a cume of $604.8M adding another $19.9M globally this frame. The Oscar winner has overtaken Tangled to become the 3rd-highest-grossing Disney animated release of all time behind Frozen and The Lion King. ...

Paramount’s The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water soaked up a further $9.6M this weekend from 6,676 locations in 51 territories for a cume of $110.4M. Opening in Israel, the film took the No. 1 spot with $854K at 27 locations — a $31,629 per-screen average and the biggest release ever for the studio in the market. It was four times bigger than Big Hero 6‘s opening and 4.5 times bigger than Penguins Of Madagascar. ...

Penguins Of Madagascar flapped up another $1.4M from 463 screens in 15 markets as its total hits $284.3M. The terrific run in Venezuela continued with $949K from 82 screens, a 14% drop for a local cume of $9.6M after four weekends. ...

Not too many pics that take in over $365 million at the box office get labeled "Disappointments," but Penguins is one of them.

The thoughts and observations of the leaders of The Animation Guild (TAG), Local 839 IATSE. Jason MacLeod is the Business Representative, KC Johnson is the President. Mike Sauer is Assistant to the Business Representative.

This weblog reflects their individual personal opinions and does not necessarily represent the official position of the Animation Guild.

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